Another day on the Madera Sugar Pine Grades COVID-19 edition

Yesterday, I decided a good way to practice Social Distancing would be to spend the day up on the Madera Sugar Pine grades. I left my house at 6 am for the mountains and arrived at my destination at 9 am. The bottom of the Crow Peak Incline which had been used in the late 1920's presented a puzzle to myself as well as to the Forest Service employees documenting the logging era. Here's the map of the location:


According to Donald DeVere's map, the grade followed the ridgeline several miles out past Roundtree Saddle. I had looked for it before at Roundtree Saddle and had come up empty handed. I decided the best way to document this grade would be to start at the base of the Crow Peak Incline and then follow the grade to Roundtree Saddle. Here's the base of the incline looking Southeast:


The incline heads up to the left. There is also a spur line that heads downhill to the left towards Signal Peak (Devil Peak). When you turn around and look Northwest this is your view:


It appears as if the area was leveled for two grades with the hump on the left being the original ground height. Just beyond this the Forest Service had bladed a fire break during the 2018 Ferguson Fire and then piled debris on top of the area formerly occupied by the spurs. The Forest Service had a team out last year trying to document the grades here and they pretty much told me they had come up empty handed due to all of the ground disturbance in creating the fire breaks, then adding the piles of downed wood. I wish I had explored this area prior to the 2018 fire...
I spent considerable time wandering the area beyond this photo looking for any traces of railroad grades. Finally I found a short spur on the left hand side of the previous photo:

We are at the end of the spur looking Southeast back towards the incline. We are just above the modern day access road that is just to our right. This spur was about 300 feet long. This one definitely did not go to Roundtree Saddle.

I kept hiking further out along the Forest Service's fire break looking for more clues:

We are on the Forest Service fire break looking Southeast again towards the incline. While the area is smooth enough for a railroad grade, the actions of the bulldozer in constructing the fire break seem to have eliminated any chances of finding it here.
To be continued...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2020 10:42AM by Dave Peterson.